As a country, we are loosing the battle for our schools. No longer revered as places of learning or preparatory stages for adulthood, we make them places where children can be safe: safe from having to face rejection on being hit with a ball during dodgeball, safe from having to celebrate holidays. Student ghosts unmasked. While I like the idea of having a school not actively celebrate Halloween, I find the reasoning to be dangerous. The principal made his decision based on the reports of some students boycotting school that day. Which begs the question: how many students (parents) boycotting school does it take to get school policy changed. Are we to end up with 3 school holidays (fall, winter, spring) because people will boycott Veterans Day? What about Memorial Day? Surely we can't have Thanksgiving or Christmas, those are already enough laced with religious ideals. Better tell Hall-mark to get ready.
If schools will capitulate to the parents soley on the fact that some people will not attend the school, then the school will cease to exist. It will become a glorified day care. Don't like what school policy is? Boycott. The policy will change. Don't like what the school is teaching? Boycott. Eventually, if it hasn't happened already, the needs of the students (to learn) will be secondary to the needs of the school officials (to not offend). And we wonder why other countries produce children educated enough to compete economically on a global scale while the US languishes toward the rear of the pack.
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